19/02/2010 ( Source: http://mobile.venturebeat.com )

SK Telecom squeezes Android

SK Telecom is looking to innovate what SIM cards can do with its upcoming Android SIM, and Theme SIM package. According to Engadget, SK’s Android SIM shoves the Android OS, a CPU, user data, applications, and a gig of storage onto a slightly-oversized SIM card.

SK sees Android SIM being particularly useful for dumbphones — typical cellphones that lack a rich web and e-mail experience. It would allow for cheaper phone hardware, since the phones wouldn’t need a CPU of their own, and users would more easily be able to transfer data and software across different phones. While the phone would be cheaper, having so much hardware on the SIM card would likely make it more expensive than the SIM cards we’re used to.

The dumbphone’s days are certainly numbered, but Android SIM shows that there’s a lot that can be done with Google’s mobile operating system. We can expect Android to become more ubiquitous over the next few years, and that means we’ll see it in as many dumbphones as well as high-end smartphones like the Nexus One. After a point, Android could actually bring enough features to dumbphones so that they’re a little less “dumb.”

SK’s Theme SIM package uses a similar over-sized SIM card to fit in user theme elements, music, pictures, and applications. It basically sounds like Android SIM without the Android OS.

SK may be on to something by innovating for phones that most companies are now ignoring in favor of smartphones. It’s also a sign that the Android platform will be a force to be reckoned with in sheer numbers alone.